Tag Archives: county

Llamas

wpid8501-AU0E9732.jpgNo long story for this one.  A llama farm was beside the road in Albion and I wandered over to see the animals one morning as they grazed.  They seemed mildly interested in me for a while and then kept eating.  I grabbed some shots of them and then went on my way.  I know llamas are hardly a rarity these days but it is still interesting to see them.

Sunset

wpid8534-C59F1610.jpgSitting on the deck of our room in Albion provided a beautiful view across the Pacific as the sun was setting.  As is usual with sunsets, you never knew exactly what you were going to get.  One night it all looked quite promising but the cloud cover low on the horizon meant it all went dull rather than getting dramatic.  On another evening, though, we had some high level clouds that started picking up the low evening light very nicely resulting in some great skies.

wpid8538-C59F1637.jpgOne evening the sun set in front of us with nothing much to obscure our view.  While I was happy to be sitting on the deck watching it go down, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to grab some shots of it.  A long lens meant some bigger views of it as the atmosphere distorted the view of its last gasps of west coast light.  After that, someone else was getting the benefits.

wpid8540-C59F1646.jpgThe strange shapes the atmospheric distortion produces were really interesting to watch.  The roundness was replaced by all sorts of shapes including one that looked more like a Mayan pyramid.  It changed so often that I had to keep shooting.  Only as it was almost done did I realize that I really should have been videoing this as well to show just how quickly it retreated below the horizon and how much it changed apparent shape while doing do.  (As an aside, I do know that the refraction of the atmosphere means that I am seeing an image of the sun on the horizon when it has actually already fallen below the true sightlines.)

wpid8542-C59F1654.jpgHaving missed this video opportunity, I shall have to be ready to try that out in future.  Meanwhile, I shall continue to enjoy the memory of the speed and rapid changes that the sun went through in the last moments of the day.

Museum of Flight

wpid6656-AU0E8587-Edit.jpgThe end of the field trip for the ISAP Symposium was a visit to the Museum of Flight.  Located at Boeing Field, this is a great museum and worth a visit whether you are an aviation nut or not.  It has an impressive collection of aircraft and they are nicely displayed.  Inside are some impressive machines including the always attractive M-12, a variant of the Blackbird family that was intended to launch high speed drones (a program that was not ultimately successful and was cancelled).

wpid6658-AU0E8598.jpgOutside is a further selection of great airframes including a British Airways Concorde, the prototype Boeing 747, a Boeing 727 in American Airlines colors and a NASA Boeing 737 which may (or may not) be a prototype.  There are others too but these stand out.  They also have a Space Shuttle crew trainer which, since it is not an original orbiter, is actually more accessible to the visitors.  It was not a long visit so we had to move pretty quickly to get around but a good time nonetheless.

Under Your Nose at King County

wpid6646-AU0E7408.jpgHayman and I had a few hours to kill after we arrived in Seattle and before we had a ferry to catch (of which more in another post).  We decided to stop off at Beoing Field to have a look around.  We checked out a number of places including the excellent pilot shop they have and ended up near the end of the runway.  I had looked at this location on a previous visit but not shot there.  A 737 was up on a test flight and due in soon so we decided to hang around.

wpid6650-AU0E7437.jpgBefore the 737 appeared, we did have a couple of corporate jets show up.  Identifying them from underneath is a little hard to do, even for those of us with far too familiar a knowledge of this things.  However, I was more interested in getting a slightly different shot from underneath.  With power lines nearby, there was a relatively short period of time in which you could get a clear shot.

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The 737 showed up shortly afterwards.  We did get to shoot it as it passed overhead but I did remember to stop shooting at one point and just look.  The view through a wide lens tends to make everything look small.  However, having something the size of a 737 right over your head is very impressive and you need to stop taking pictures and just have a look every once in a while.

Ameriflight

wpid6221-AU0E1522.jpgNot a company that I was previously familiar with, Ameriflight seems to have a significant operation at Boeing Field.  I assume they are a feeder to some of the larger parcels businesses that operate out of there bringing in and distributing out the packages to smaller locations that don’t have the need for something the size of a 757.  They operate a mix of turboprop types.

wpid6213-AU0E1421.jpgBeech see to be a popular choice.  They had Beech 99s, King Air 200s and Beech 1900 airliners operating at various points, all seeming to have been converted for cargo business.  In addition, they had some Metroliners – a type that you don’t get to see so often these days.

wpid6216-AU0E1446.jpgFlightware suggested they also had Brasilias but I didn’t get to see one while I was there so whether that is true or one of Flightaware’s not infrequent errors, I don’t know.  Sadly, as color schemes go, they are not terribly distinctive but it was still nice to see a selection of different types in a very short space of time.  I imagine they have a window of deliveries and pick ups so timing was everything.

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Biz Jets Too!

wpid6191-AU0E1129.jpgI am always partial to a corporate jet or two.  Since Boeing Field is closer to downtown Seattle, it is a popular base of operations.  There are a couple of FBOs on the field and a few movements took place while I was there.  While the end of the line has come for the Hawker business jet as far as production is concerned, there are a huge number of them in service so seeing them will be common for many years to come.  A nice Canadian example came in while I was there.

wpid6276-AU0E2290.jpgA departing Falcon 2000 was another nice one to see.  Falcons are a very popular line and the 2000 looks okay to me but as it takes off over you, I think you get the best angle on it.  There were a selection of jets departing as well.  Heat haze was a small problem but not terrible and, for web sized images, it doesn’t cause too much trouble.

wpid6198-AU0E1266.jpgA Learjet came in while the sun was out but the sky in the background was a touch more moody.  That certainly made me happy as it makes for a more interesting shot.  It was a brief visit but still resulted in a fair bit of interest so I would happily stop back again.

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Freighter Frenzy

wpid6249-AU0E1872.jpgA recent post mentioned an evening at Boeing Field in Seattle. With nice evening light, this is a great place to shoot. Not only is the warm evening light in exactly the right diction, the field is situated at the bottom of a hill that provides a far more interesting backdrop for shots than a clear sky. Also, the variety of traffic is very good. Today, I shall focus on the bigger freighters. The airport is a base for UPS and DHL and also has a variety of other freight traffic.

wpid6232-AU0E1757.jpgWith so many airlines vanishing and the variety of aircraft types diminishing, freighters provide an interesting level of diversity. First they are different operators, even if UPS and FedEx are pretty ubiquitous. Also, they tend to operate older types so aircraft that are in the twilight of their passenger careers may show up more often. This trip was not going to deliver too many exotic types with 757s and 767s still being regulars in passenger service but it won’t be too long before they start to disappear.

wpid6239-AU0E1798.jpgIrrespective, it is nice to see something a little different and to shoot them in nice light and at a nice location is even better.

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Not so long ago, this would have been boring

wpid6243-AU0E1830.jpgOne evening after work I had some time to hang out at King County Airport, oath wise known as Boeing Field. In the evening light, this is a nice place to observe aviation. It has quite a variety of activity and, with quite a lot of freight activity focused later in the day, getting there after work can be productive. I shall tell more about the other movements in upcoming posts. Today is focus on one of those things that the passage of time brings. There was a Boeing 737 and I was excited by it. Why? It was a 200 series jet. For many years these were the only type of 737 around and, even when the 300 series came along, they were still very common.

wpid6245-AU0E1841.jpgAs a sign of my age, I remember when the 200 series was called the “classic” compared to the newer 300-500 series jets. Now those are called classic compared to the NG jets. With the 7X, 8X and 9X coming along, will the NG now become classic and the previous two generations will need a different moniker? Anyway, 200s are not terribly common anymore so seeing one getting regular use was a nice change. It has a cargo door in the forward fuselage which, I suspect, it didn’t have earlier in its life. I hope it has a good few years left.

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Waterfall Glen

It’s always nice to get out and check out a place that you haven’t been to before. Nancy spotted one of the forest preserves in DuPage County called Waterfall Glen. Despite the name, it isn’t about a waterfall – although there is a small man-made one there. It is actually named after a guy called Waterfall from many moons ago.

The preserve is a sizable area. The middle of it is off limits though. It is the Argonne National Laboratory so I guess they don’t want people wandering in whenever they feel like it. There is a trail that runs all the way around the area and it was part of this that we sampled.

This was a walk and not a photo outing so I only took one camera and one lens with me. There was a fair bit of wildlife around so, if I was prepared to hump the equipment around, I suspect there could be some good shots to be made. We saw a coyote, a deer, many types of bird and a small snake that was right on the path in front of us – good spot Nancy.

However, they were just a benefit on top of the nice walk. The weather was rather warm for this time of year and I was surprised how much color was still in the trees with some still very green. There was also the little waterfall mentioned earlier. A nice spot and one I suspect we will visit again.

More lighter than air fun

Again you are going to receive an abbreviated post that is directing you to another location for the fuller story. In this case, it is a piece I have put together for Global Aviation Resource. The topic is the Zeppelin NT airship operated by Airship Ventures, a company based just outside San Francisco in California.

It seems that lighter than air vehicles have suddenly become a big thing for me. I blogged not long ago about a blimp that was circling my home (not that it was aware that I was there of course – I think it was doing other things). Then I saw the Zeppelin of Airship Ventures floating over the Chicago lakefront while I was watching fireworks on the 4th of July. They were at Oshkosh and got a lot of coverage while there and now have passed back through Chicagoland.

I had the chance to go out and watch the team at work recently and that is the focus of the article that can be found at this link.